My Ancient Gold and Silver

Hello everyone,
I'm a member of a few other forums and recognized some usernames here so I decided to join the fun! I've been collecting all my life but my interest was rekindled relatively recently. To say my collection has changed a lot over the last few years would be a major understatement. After accomplishing most of my goals in US coins, I wanted to go earlier and immediately started down my journey to the "dark side". I still have my main US collection, but except for a few specific pieces I'm looking for, I don't expect to grow it moving forward.

My journey started with a 1794 8 escudo but that wasn't enough... I then started moving back through the centuries to a 1602 Sword and Sceptre, then an English noble, then some late Byzantine coins, and then a solidus of Valentinian. I was still undecided on my collecting direction, focusing still on US coins as they felt "safer". Then at an ANA show, I saw an Alexander the Great Stater and was hooked on ancient gold, with a grip that was not going to let up.

Since then, I've been narrowing my focus, looking for pieces that have an inherent rarity, are visually diverse, and are of a high grade without problems. Long term, my goal is to complete a set of The Twelve Caesars and the "Five Good Emperors" in gold. Visual diversity is difficult here as many of the more interesting issues are also the harder to find ones, but it's worth the effort in my eyes.

Without further delay, here are the images of some of my favorites. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Silver Dekadrachm from Syrakuse of Dionysios I, 400-390BC by Euanietos. (43.49g)
I won this lot yesterday at the Goldberg Pre-Long Beach auction. As you'll see, I tend to prefer gold but I couldn't pass up this dekadrachm - the metal quality is fantastic and the color is beautiful.



Antoninus Pius (Calico 1650). Ex. Biaggi, the Calico plate coin, in Mint State. The reverse type is interpreted as showing Pius as the refounder of Rome and of Roman morality, following in the footsteps of Augustus who had also wanted the name Romulus. I have a disproportionate number of Antoninus Pius aurei in my collection because I seem drawn to him as an emperor. He is definitely atypical as Roman emperors go, but I like that about him. He made some major improvements to this world, in particular creating the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" and many humanitarian efforts.



Octavian Aureus (32-31BC), the last type to be issued before the Battle of Actium, likely struck in preparation for the confrontation with Antony.
I won this yesterday as well. It's solid for the VF grade and one of the better examples of this issue. This piece was also in the Biaggi collection.


Hadrian (Calico 1226), also a Calico plate coin for the type. While the Twelve Caesars are what many people collect, I've so far been focused on the Nerva-Antonine Dynasty.



Alexander the Great Distater (336BC)

I've been looking for this type for a long time, and while they do come up from time to time, I've passed on several examples offered to me as they all had problems. I was very excited as I saw an upcoming auction had one listed as "a pleasing, problem-free example" but was very disappointed when I looked closer and while it wasn't terrible, it was definitely not problem-free.
However, out of the blue, I had a dealer say that he had one available and I immediately jumped on it.
This type is similar in design to the Alexander the Great staters but twice the weight, with this example weighing in at 17.23 grams. The denomination overall is quite rare and they very often have filed edges.
The obverse is of Athena wearing a Corinthian helmet decorated with a coiled snake, the the reverse is Nike holding a wreath and mast with a thunderbolt to her left.



Ptolemy IV Octadrachm (220-205BC) - one of the best I've seen recently. These usually have a large amount of die rust but this example is of a early state as it has very clear surfaces.



Arsinoe II Octadrachm, in an NGC Ch XF 5/5 - 5/5 holder. If you ever have an opportunity to feel one of these in hand, I highly recommend it. They are stunning coins - almost a full ounce of gold from 200BC.



Nero, from Lugdunum. The reverse is of Roma standing right, placing left foot on a pile of enemy arms before her, and inscribing the shield which she balances on her left knee. This reverse type and the contemporary “Virtus” type which was introduced alongside it in 61AD, might actually depict a pair of statues of Roma Victrix erected by the Senate (EX S C) in commemoration of two victories of Nero’s armies in Britain and Armenia.



Nero, from the Boscoreale horde. While considerably less expensive than the previous coin and with a flan flaw on the reverse, I prefer this one due to the wonderful toning and it being from the Boscoreale horde. As I'm one to trim out duplicates, I'll probably eventually let the above coin go in favor of keeping this one just because of the toning and eerie fact that it was buried in Pompeii ash for 1800 years.



Antoninus Pius (Calico 1590). This coin is incredibly high relief, with Antoninus Pius' head sticking out considerably in 3D. I know many ancient collectors don't like NGC holders but I had this holdered and received Ch AU 5/5 Fine Style which I think is accurate to its grade.



Yet another Antoninus Pius. I really do have a place in my heart for him, but perhaps a little too much of one at the moment as I still have so many other emperors to collect!



I do still like US coins and definitely appreciate their history, and because the US is part of the world, I'll share a few of my examples here if it doesn't offend anyone

1808/7 $5 PCGS AU58, BD-1, the R6 variety



1799 $5 NGC AU53, the R6+ variety. I bought this because of the die cracks on the reverse - I've never seen a gold coin with this extensive of die cracks.



1817/3 50C in NGC MS63. How the engravers thought they could cover a 3 with a 7 is beyond me, but this is my favorite overdate.


Pine tree shilling, PCGS VF35 CAC, an R5+ variety with backwards 'N's. I love overdates/misspellings and this one certainly fits well with my others.


Bar cent, NGC AU58, ex Mike Ringo. I looked for a nice bar cent for very long time and missed this one at auction, but found the dealer who bought it and made him a nice offer so here it is!



To please the "World" side of this forum, here are a couple coins from my world collection:

1602 Scotland Sword and Sceptre which I cracked out of an NGC VF35 to get a better picture. I had the opportunity to acquire an NGC AU55 but I dramatically preferred this one for its look.



1725 Brazil 20000 Reis, in an NGC AU55 holder. This is a massive coin (almost two ounces of gold) - I believe the largest gold coin minted for circulation up until that point.



And finally, here's the yellow metal in its natural, non-coin form. This is from the Eagle's Nest mine in California, measuring about three inches tall by two inches wide (and about 2cm deep). I spent a long time looking for the "right" crystalline gold and this had everything I was looking for:



Thanks for looking and I'm excited to get to see everyone's collections on the forum! Please let me know if you have any questions of any of these coins!

-Joe

 

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Seen these on the other board & still in awe over all of these.

 

Wow - those are fantastic - thanks for sharing them.

 

I agree, still drooling since the last time I saw them, thanks for sharing :thumb:

 

Please keep us up to date - I'd love to see your progress.

 

Those are some awesome coins ancientJoe!

Welcome to the Cointalk! Lots of ancient collectors around here, it seems many ancient fans have joined recently.

 

Fabulous collection. Please keep us apprised of your new acquisitions!

 

OMG...

 

I feel like I just walked out of a museum...wow.

 

Excuse me while I wipe away the drool on my keyboard.

 

Your first post here is a little flashier than my first post... :yes:



(Ok, a lot flashier)

 

Fabulous pieces! I can't afford gold coins, but can admire them from afar.
Thanks for sharing these!

 

I agree with others, not much to say in view of such coins but wow.

I only have ever seen similar when Harlan Berk gave me a tour of his safe.

Outstanding coins, and outstanding taste Joe.

 

Well done ancientjoe! As of right now, you lead all Cointalk members in the ratio of likes to posts. With an astounding 12 to 1.:thumb:

Keep posting coins like that, and I don't see anyone catching you.

 

There's nothing left for me to say. :dead-horse: :bow::bow:

 

The Syracuse Decadrachm is new--wow, amazing coin! These are all fantastic--like a museum collection. :bow:

 

While I agree with the comments praising the coins, I also found interest in the photography. The coins from Goldberg show a problem I have had that regularly comes back to bite me when I don't pay attention. Either they added the black background in postprocessing or they shot with a fill light/reflector on the edge of the coin. This looks great if done subtly but too much produces a rim of light that can be mistaken for an edge seam which is not on the coin. I'd like to think that people able to bid on coins of this level would be able to tell a photo artifact from a sign of a fake coin but that is not a chance I'd take if I were selling coins for a living. On the other hand, the Pius gold photos are quite nice and capture a range of tones available on ancient gold. Did you shoot those or are they seller photos?

 

=> well played my savvy coin-friend, well played ... sending-in the nuke on your very first post was pure genius!!

:cheers:

 

Thats interesting because I just assumed those coins had those edges. I actually thought it was a little strange but an artifact of them being such nice specimens.